â€œI noticed on the front page of the Alberni Valley Times today that thereâ€™s a Ucluelet resident who has a medical marijuana license and that seems to have been a hot topic on the ACRD table,â€ she said.

Mole asked Mayor Bill Irving to provide background on the discussions that have been occurring at the regional district.

Irving hesitated to call the issue a hot topic regionally because the ACRDâ€™s discussions only involve locations within the region where medical marijuana growing operations could occur under the conditions imposed by the provincial and federal governments.

â€œThereâ€™s quite a number of people thinking theyâ€™re going to capitalize on this but the requirements for fencing, for security, for cameras, for lighting, for trained staff, is pretty onerous and thereâ€™s only a limited market,â€ he said. â€œI think thereâ€™s under 50,000 (medical marijuana users) actually across Canada so itâ€™s going to be an interesting exercise.â€